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The Kerala government Tuesday said that it will frame new guidelines for admissions to the medical and engineering colleges in the state.

Speaking in the assembly, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy sought the opposition's co-operation in monitoring the professional training sector.

"When the professional education sector was thrown open to the private sector in 2001, the then Chief Minister A.K. Antony visualised a scenario where 50 per cent of the seats to these colleges were to go to the management quota and the other 50 per cent were to be filled in the merit quota of the examinations conducted by the state," Chandy said.

"Even the apex court approved of that, but when it came to the fees, the court ruled that no cross-subsidy should take place. From then on, things went haywire," he said.

Leader of Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan expressed his support.

"It is high time that we tame these unscrupulous private managements," said Achuthanandan.

Admissions to professional colleges in the state have been a controversial issue for a long time now. Private managements who run the institutions try to admit students according to their own norms, which the state government has objected to.